Pylypchuk S. Ivan Franko's Folkloristic Conceptions: Methodology, Genology

The thesis focuses on a comprehensive scrutiny of Ivan Franko's folkloristic legacy. The author analyzes two major trends of folkloristic research of the scholar: methodology and genology. Franko's reception of mythological, anthropological, migrational, comparative-historical, cultural-historical and philological schools of folklore studies is regarded as the one aimed at an objective stereometric analysis of a phenomenon; hence, based thereon it has become possible to outline a unique methodological strategy. Positive findings of each of the mentioned doctrines were all employed by the scholar; he made active use of them in his folkloristic research (from the mythologists he borrowed the analysis of the most ancient layers of oral lore with an essential mythological basis; from the anthropologists - the focus on a stage-by-stage development of oral lore; from the comparativists - the comparative evaluation of the national folklore phenomena; from the representatives of the cultural-historical school - the representation of "the spiritual look" of the epoch based on the maximum possible involvement of all "folklore wealth"; from the philologists - a keen interest in the text, "penetration" into the verbal space of each text and hence the identification of invisible substances of its artistic nature).